2020 Elections

Politico reports: Elizabeth Warren turned down a Fox News invitation Tuesday for a televised town hall and denounced the cable network as a “hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists.” The network has been inviting Democratic presidential candidates to participate in town halls moderated by its news reporters. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar already done the events, …

The Daily Beast reports: Last month, the hosts of Fox & Friends openly worried that Mayor Pete Buttigieg might be the next Barack Obama. Now, Jimmy Fallon may have just confirmed their worst nightmare. On Monday night, Buttigieg joined the Tonight Show host for his latest edition of “Slow Jam the News.” The recurring bit started as a vehicle for …

NPR reports: Montana Gov. Steve Bullock announced on Tuesday that he’s running for president, appealing to primary voters as a Democrat elected twice in a largely Republican state and joining a primary field of nearly two dozen candidates. Bullock is focusing his campaign message on campaign finance, touting Montana’s election laws that he has championed as attorney general and governor, …

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg just texted his followers to announce the launch of #PrideForPete merchandise, which includes t-shirts, tank tops, bags, stickers, badges, rally signs, and temporary tattoos. The swag comes in the colors of the transgender pride flag, the eight-stripe rainbow that includes the colors black and brown, and one shirt hails the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. As …

The Hill reports: Democratic Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg joked in an interview with published Sunday by Vulture that the character Selina Meyer from political comedy show “Veep” would be “well matched” in a 2020 race against President Trump. “Tough to say — they would be well matched,” Buttigieg, who currently serves as the mayor of South Bend, Ind., said when …

NBC News reports: Pete Buttigieg sought to diffuse weeks of fraught questions about white privilege and his struggles attracting minorities to his campaign by calling out fellow Democrats on Saturday for playing “identity politics” and pitting one group’s grievances against another’s. In a risky speech to the Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBT rights group, Buttigieg warned of a “crisis …

NBC News reports: Advocates for Spanish-speaking voters in Florida are celebrating a significant win Friday after District Judge Mark Walker issued an order requiring 32 of the state’s 67 counties to provide election materials and assistance to Spanish-speaking voters before the 2020 presidential primary. Walker’s decision comes after several civic engagement groups and individuals sued the state secretary of state …

The Associated Press reports: Beto O’Rourke barreled into the 2020 presidential race with breakneck energy and a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants campaign style that saw him leap atop tables to address overflow crowds with the organic, off-the-cuff candor that had made him a Texas sensation. But since his mid-March campaign launch, the buzz surrounding the former congressman has evaporated. Competing in a massive …

Politico reports: Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia House minority leader who lost the contentious race for governor race last year, has not ruled out the possibility of running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. In an excerpt from a new interview for “Pod Save America,” Abrams simply replied “yes” when asked whether she would ever consider joining the already-crowded pool …

Josh Israel reports at Think Progress: The nickname stems from the 2018 West Virginia Republican Senate primary. In that race, coal baron Don Blankenship, the former Massey Energy CEO who served a one-year sentence in federal prison for conspiring to violate mine safety rules, ran ads promising to replace McConnell as the Senate’s GOP leader. The spots, which referred to …

CNN reports: South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has made clear throughout his upstart 2020 presidential bid that he believes Democrats should embrace religion and decry those who try to suggest God belongs to one political party or another. But in an interview with NBC’s Today Show that aired on Tuesday, Buttigieg suggested that if God did have a political affiliation, …

Politico reports: Kirsten Gillibrand has pledged to only nominate judges who would uphold Roe v. Wade as settled legal precedent — a move that commits to a judicial litmus test and marks an unusual step for a presidential candidate. Gillibrand acknowledged that “traditionally, presidents and presidential candidates haven’t drawn lines in the sand on judicial appointments, to preserve the impartiality …

The New York Daily News reports: He’s gone from late to overdue. Mayor Bill de Blasio revealed Monday that he will not announce his 2020 presidential bid this week after all, despite insiders’ widespread belief that he was planning to take the plunge. “It’s not the night, no,” de Blasio said on NY1 when host Errol Louis asked if he …

The Rising reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden has a 32-point lead in the Democratic presidential race in a HarrisX poll released Monday. Biden won 46 percent in the poll compared to 14 percent for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who came in a distant second place. Former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg was in third place with 8 percent, …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: Sen. Thom Tillis has drawn a Republican challenger in 2020. Garland Tucker III, the retired chairman and CEO of Triangle Capital Corporation and an author, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Committee to run in the Republican primary on Monday. Tucker wrote “Conservative Heroes: Fourteen Leaders Who Changed America — Jefferson to Reagan” and …

CBS News reports: Democratic presidential candidate and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker introduced a sweeping gun violence prevention plan. If elected, the campaign announced Monday that on day one of his presidency, Booker will use executive action to close gun sales loopholes and to make investments in communities affected by gun violence. The plan, which is the most extensive gun …

ABC News reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders pushed back against former Vice President Joe Biden’s claim that he has “the most progressive record” of any candidate in the Democratic presidential field, citing Biden’s votes as a member of the U.S. Senate as evidence that his views were not always in line with the nation’s liberals. “I think if you look at …

Axios reports: Beto O’Rourke told supporters at a Fort Worth rally on Friday that he would put former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in charge of voting rights initiatives if he were elected president. O’Rourke said at the rally he spoke with Abrams on the phone “to thank her for all the work that she’s doing on voting rights.” When …

CBS News reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden rang the alarm that “Jim Crow is sneaking back” at a campaign rally in South Carolina, the south’s first primary state that is seen as key to clinching the Democratic nomination. Biden added to his usual fighting-for-the-middle-class stump speech by calling for protecting voting rights and ending “systemic racism.” Biden cited numerous …

Politico reports: Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi will not run for reelection next year, the four-term Republican senator said on Saturday. The 75-year-old Senate Budget Committee chairman announced his retirement in Gillette, Wyo., where he used to be mayor. The low-key Wyomingite said he wants to focus on budget reform. He frequently ignores reporters to go about his day, which is …